Fox Horror Classics: The Lodger (1944), The Undying Monster (1942), Hangover Square (1945) (Fox DVD)
In the annals of classic horror cinema, Laird Cregar (1913-45) is a largely forgotten figure. His premature death, which was inadvertently self-inflicted, paved the way for fellow Fox contractee Vincent Price to enjoy the career Cregar was meant to have. Cregar was an obese, semi-closeted gay man. In the Hollywood of the 1940s, being openly gay was career suicide. In 1943, as Cregar's career was taking off, director James Whale (Frankenstein, Showboat) publicly came out, and never worked again. Cregar "played the game."
Cregar was a superb character actor. He first attracted attention doing a one-man stage show portraying his idol, Oscar Wilde. Several studios called, offering him contracts. Cregar went with Fox, who promised him variety in the roles they would give him. Though he never came out publicly, Cregar managed to inject gay subtext into his performances. In the bullfighting epic Blood and Sand (1941), a gleeful Cregar sits in the bleachers, lovingly cheering Tyrone Power.
Cregar became a bona fide star less than a year before he died. In the chilling The Lodger (1944), Cregar portrays uber-creepy serial-killer Slade. Set in the foggy, gaslit London of 1888, The Lodger, a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1926 debut, attempts to identify and do a character study of no less than Jack the Ripper.
Slade appears to be in love with his late brother. He obsessively hates dance-hall girls, as one such young lady led his brother to ruin (or so he thinks). Though not a positive gay role model, Cregar's performance was daring for its time, with the character's homosexuality out of the closet for all to see. Slade is a quiet, restrained psychopath. His scenes are chilling.
Director John Brahm, a native of Germany, was no doubt inspired by the 1920s Expressionistic films of his homeland. He presents London as a dark labyrinth filled with fog and shadows. The Lodger is an eerie, unsettling film. Its scares are genuine, and its subtext of repressed sexuality made it quite titillating to 1940s moviegoers. The film was a huge hit.
That same year, Cregar and Brahm were reunited for another Victorian chiller, Hangover Square. As George Harvey Bone, Cregar is sensational in this, his greatest performance. Bone is a highly regarded composer. Unknown to all, he's also a schizophrenic. He thinks he may have committed a murder during one of his blackouts, but he isn't sure. When a cheap pub singer (Linda Darnell) uses him to advance her own career, he loses his mind and goes on a rampage.
Like The Lodger, Hangover Square presents Victorian London as a massive, Gothic monstrosity. Cregar gives a more energetic performance in Square. He's terrifying, a true monster. Viewers might also notice that the 300-lb. Cregar was noticeably thinner. The actor, who yearned to play romantic leads, had been crash-dieting to the point of starvation. He even underwent several ill-advised surgeries to decrease his stomach size and alter his facial features. He lost too much weight too quickly, and destroyed his health. Shortly before the film's release, the actor suffered two heart attacks on the same day. That night, he died at age 31. Had he lived, had he been able to accept himself for who he was, Laird Cregar would have enjoyed a long career as a character actor and horror star in Hollywood. But it wasn't meant to be. Several vehicles being planned for Cregar went to Vincent Price. As Price became the Master of Menace, Cregar faded into obscurity.
Newly restored, remastered prints of The Lodger and Hangover Square are offered, along with tons of extras, in the new Fox DVD box set Fox Horror Classics. In a documentary included on Lodger, film historians Kim Newman and Gregory William Mank discuss the film's development and its gay subtext. Square features a doc on Cregar's life and career, which includes discussions of his homosexuality. Both DVDs offer 1946 radio dramatizations of each disc's main feature. In an almost cruel twist, it's the voice of Vincent Price that substitutes for the deceased Laird Cregar.
As an added bonus, Fox Horror Classics includes John Brahm's werewolf chiller The Undying Monster (1942). Set in Victorian Cornwall, this obvious nod to the Universal horror films is another dark, expressionist scare fest. Its disc includes an insightful documentary on Brahm.
The Blood Shed (2006) (Heretic Films)
The Blood Shed is one strange movie. Written, directed by and starring out horror fan Alan Rowe Kelly, the film reimagines what John Waters' Pink Flamingos might have been like had Waters made a slasher film.
Kelly, the Chi Chi LaRue of the horror genre, plays Beef Teena, a 12-year-old girl who dresses like Shirley Temple. Kelly, in his 40s and a little chubby, makes for a hilariously bizarre figure in his Temple drag. Beef Teena's family, the Bullions, are inbred, white-trash serial killers. As suburbia encroaches upon their rural New Jersey enclave, they decide to get rid of the neighbors, and have some of them for dinner!
Like Pink Flamingos, Blood Shed is a grotesque freak show, which is exactly what its director intended it to be. As victims get castrated, as their ears are cut off, as the blood pours, you'll cringe. But like the infamous shit-eating scene from the Waters film, you'll giggle while you gag. The Bullions are such extreme caricatures of trailer-park trash that the film becomes screamingly funny and strangely likable.
One scene in particular stands out: Beef Teena tries to join a high-fashion modeling agency. Kelly, a former hair and make-up artist for the fashion industry, knows exactly how to spoof the poses that make the careers of supermodels. It's surreal, and supremely funny. The Blood Shed is a disgusting but lovable midnight freak show.
I Was a TV Horror Host by John Stanley (Stanley Books)
For six years in the 1970s and early 80s, John Stanley hosted Creature Features on KTVU-TV. He was Channel 2's top attraction, and he remains a legend among Bay Area horror-film aficionados. Stanley, who recently hosted the Shock It 2 Me! horror marathon at the Castro Theatre, now offers this new tome. I Was a TV Horror Host looks back on not only his years on the tube, but also his 33 years as a film and TV critic for the Chronicle .
Stanley is a gentle soul who happens to love horror movies. In doing Creature Features, and in writing for the Chronicle, he got to interview many of his idols. His book is filled with hundreds of photos from Stanley's personal collection. It includes his encounters with horror legends Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, director Roger Corman, and author Robert Bloch (Psycho).
Stanley also pays tribute to other TV horror hosts, such as Bob Wilkins, who preceded him at KTVU. Elvira makes an expected appearance, but Stanley doesn't forget Vampira, Elvira's 1950s predecessor, who appeared in Ed Wood's infamous Plan 9 from Outer Space (1956). www.stanleybooks.net.